


Veronique Chereau and Associates

by HufflepuffLovesPizza



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Kind of canon maybe and if so after season five, Shoot babysitting, Shootweek18
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-16 00:32:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14800908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HufflepuffLovesPizza/pseuds/HufflepuffLovesPizza
Summary: Shaw helps Root on a babysitting mission.





	Veronique Chereau and Associates

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for the help and support of SloanGreyMercyDeath, w3llthatdidntwork and T_Ninja! I have no idea what I did to deserve such wonderful and talented friends as y'all! :-)

Shaw had a feeling the Machine was playing a game with her. She had been about to get her favorite sandwich at her favorite deli when the pesky artificial intelligence rerouted her to a different deli promising a better sandwich. As she walked past a park, she thought she recognized a certain body by the swing set. She squinted her eyes because she was looking for a tall, lanky brunette but only saw a tall, lanky blonde pushing a boy toddler in a swing while holding a baby. 

Her gut pinged her. Not knowing if it was hunger or intuition, she took another look. Root. The hair color might have fooled her for a second, but there was no denying the way Root walked, as if she was on a runaway or something. Of course, Root had her robot girlfriend reroute Shaw so she could walk past at this exact moment. Shaw shook her head. She let out a deep sigh and walked towards the annoying hacker. 

Root was so preoccupied making sure the toddler stayed in the swing and the baby was happy in her arms that she didn’t see her favorite primary asset sneak up on her. 

“That better be a wig,” Shaw spat out, scowling. 

Root turned around, very surprised to see Shaw standing in the playground glaring at her. 

“Don’t like the blonde?” Root said, batting her eyelashes at Shaw. The baby pulled at the wig and it slightly skewed to the side. 

“No.” Shaw rolled her eyes. She moved behind the small boy and took over swinging duties from Root. “What are you doing? Whose kids are these?”

Root actually looked kind of natural holding the baby girl, who seemed happy in her arms. The baby was fascinated by the wig and started to chew on it. Root kept pulling it out of little chubby, eager baby hands. 

“I need to hack this guy’s home server so the Machine sent him and his wife away for the weekend,” Root switched the baby girl over to her other hip effortlessly. 

“Without their kids?” Shaw asked as continued to push the swing for the toddler. 

“I only get the small details. The big picture - that is all her,” Root tilted her head and had a far off look in her eyes. “Although, this one does even puzzle me.” 

“How are you supposed to hack a server while watching two babies?”

“I’m not baby!” the little boy toddler yelled at Shaw. 

Shaw looked down at the little boy and rolled her eyes at him. 

“I want down.” The little boy looked to Root and Shaw. “Pzease!” 

The little boy zeroed in his efforts on Shaw. He smiled up at the woman who only returned a blank face to him. Shaw stopped the swing and pulled the little guy out of his seat. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he reached up to grab hold of Shaw’s hand. 

“Come pay with me.” He looked up at Shaw and smiled. “Pzease!”

Shaw rolled her eyes again. She did not want to be charmed by a little person with floppy brown hair and puppy dog eyes that kind of resembled Bear’s. She was then reluctantly pulled over to the playground equipment by the little boy and instructed to get inside the silly fort. They climbed up the ladder and slid down the slide. 

Root sauntered over and couldn’t help the huge smile that spread across her face. Seeing Shaw slide down a slide with a toddler was almost as unbelievable as an artificial intelligence talking in her ear. 

It was a crisp fall day, not too hot and just chilly enough for a sweater and a light jacket. Shaw was wearing her black pants with black boots and a black sweater, not one splash of color. Root was wearing a floral dress with a light blue sweater and, of course, the blonde wig. Shaw stared at Root; she much preferred Root’s leather jackets and painted on jeans to this nanny look. Yet, she did think it would be fun to rip that dress off of Root later.

Another 30 minutes on the playground and three juice boxes later, one for the boy and two for Shaw, it was time to head back to the kids’ residence. The sun was starting to set off in the distance, sunlight streaming in between buildings on the bustling New York streets. 

Shaw carried the toddler while Root pushed a baby stroller with the girl. The boy wasn’t heavy, but he was more difficult than carrying weights Shaw noticed. For one thing, he squirmed a lot, so Shaw had to make sure she kept a tight grip on the boy. He was fascinated by everything on the busy streets, but most of all he was fascinated by the woman carrying him. The little boy was in awe of Shaw; he kept his eyes glued to her, unless a dog was walking by then both of their eyes were glued to the dog. 

They walked for a few minutes before Shaw broke the peaceful silence, looking at Root. 

“Where in the hell did you come from?” Shaw glanced over to Root as she walked alongside side pushing the stroller. “I thought you left town.”

“Well…about 48 hours ago, I came from your bed,” Root smirked at Shaw. She leaned in and whispered into Shaw’s ear. “Or rather, I came IN your bed…Thank you.” Root kissed Shaw’s cheek before pulling away and getting caught by the boy’s grabby hands. “Then, before I was about to leave town, plans changed.” 

Shaw glared at the fake nanny, but she couldn’t stop the electric feeling running through her body or the beginning heat of such a comment from Root. Damnit, Root. Thankfully, carrying a heavy toddler was like an extreme cold shower. When the little boy slapped her chest to look at another dog, Root and their intense activities from the other night were momentarily pushed aside. 

They eventually stopped walking when they got to the kid’s brownstone. Root looked at Shaw with big, hopeful eyes. 

“Are you hungry? It’s getting close to dinner,” Root asked softly as she stood closer to Shaw. She couldn’t help, but think about the other night. Neither of them had mentioned that Shaw’s three-time rule was broken years ago now and Root still kept hoping that Shaw would never notice. 

It had been a year now since the dust settled over the big A.I. almost-apocalyptic war that no one really knew about but them and things were getting kind of normal. As normal, as it can get when your boss is an artificial intelligence and your job is saving people from being assholes to other people. They both had apartments, keeping up an illusion that they weren’t really living together, but they were totally living together. 

“I’m not babysitting for you. That’s above my pay grade.” Shaw looked at the little guy in her arms. She was hungry since she never got her sandwich and she would like to see Root take off the blonde wig; it was unsettling to see the hacker without her natural chestnut brown hair color. 

“Please, Shaw. Just help me feed them and get them to sleep,” Root pleaded, adding a little lip pout to really close the deal. She knew she could hack into almost any server, but she was a little unsure if she could get these two little kids to sleep. Sure, Veronique Chereau spoke a good game to her clients of her past fake nanny experiences, but it had been a while since she was around children. 

Shaw huffed and rolled her eyes. She hadn’t put the little guy back on the ground yet because he was making some kind of gurgling sound and she wanted to listen to his chest to make sure he wasn’t getting a cold. 

“Hey, George,” Root said, setting her eyes on the little guy in Shaw’s arms. “Want to have your new friend Shaw eat dinner with us?”

“Pzease! Yes!” George clapped his hands and smiled. Then he lifted his arms and slammed his hands back down on Shaw’s shoulders. 

Shaw squinted her eyes at Root. The hacker should know by now that tactics like this don’t work on her. She was not going to stay and help her. This wasn’t her mission. 

Suddenly, her phone beeped. Shaw pulled the device out of her pocket and tried to look at it while George reached for it. She looked down at the text message, she growled. 

“New number?” Root asked innocently. 

“The Machine has assigned me the mission of making sure you don’t feed these kids candy for dinner,” Shaw shook her head. She was going to kick one of the Machine’s servers when she got back to the new subway location. How dare she give one of the most highly qualified agents in the world the assignment of making sure some babies have a well-balanced meal, Shaw thought to herself. 

“Candy! Pzease!” George grabbed onto Shaw’s ponytail, fascinated by her hair and excited by one certain word. 

Since the system was now open, the Machine’s assignments weren’t just numbers any more, everything wasn’t such a mystery to figure out anymore. This pleased and annoyed both Root and Shaw at times. Now it seemed, the Machine acted more like a meddling, nosy mom than an all-knowing artificial intelligence. Actually, it felt like both at the same time. 

**BEEP! BEEP!** Both Shaw and Root’s phones went off. They looked to each other then their phones. Root bent down quickly to the bottom part of the baby stroller and pulled a baby carrier and handed it to Shaw. 

“What is this a baby fanny pack?” Shaw said with some mild disgust. 

“It looks like fannytastic on you.” Root grinned at Shaw. 

Shaw shook her head and passed over George to Root’s arms where they both watched the petite primary asset very quickly and swiftly attach the baby carrier to her chest. Root then placed George safely in the baby carrier now securely attached to Shaw’s chest. George looked excited, as he was strapped in. 

“I’ll take the street. You take the avenue,” Shaw said to Root as she moved fast down the street, but not running as to not jostle George that much. 

Root spun around the baby stroller and headed off in the opposite direction. The baby girl slept in the stroller, passed out in nappy mode, snoozing away. 

The gang of thieves exiting the bank they were robbing did not see a dark haired woman speed walking towards them with a look so fierce on her face it was more deadly than a switchblade. Being extremely mindful of George, Shaw dropped kicked one guy, then punched another guy that ran towards her. 

One guy took off running, as soon as he got to the corner, Root emerged and gently knocked him down with the baby stroller. As soon as he stood up, Root kicked him hard in the groin area; he fell to the ground in agony. 

Shaw had the other two guys zip tied to a nearby railing, never hurts to carry zip ties in your pocket, for work and for Root.

George smiled and clapped the whole time as the two women worked and apprehended the robbers. Shaw walked over and zip tied the guy Root took down, too. 

“You and baby okay?” Shaw asked as she looked at the now awake baby girl in the stroller. 

“Yeah,” Root smiled a beaming smile at Shaw. She looked closely at George to make sure he was okay. “George, how are you?”

“We payed punch,” George smiled at Root and mimicked his little arm into a punch after watching Shaw. 

Shaw reached out and pulled Root close to her, as close as she could with a toddler strapped to her chest. She ran her hand up to Root’s neck and brought their lips together. It was a warm, brief kiss. Root caught Shaw’s upper lip and sucked on it for a second, which lead to another firmer kiss from Shaw. 

George started giggling and squirming between them. They both looked at each other then the toddler squished in between them. 

“Let’s get these brats home,” Shaw ruffled George’s hair and he giggled more, while Root beamed heart eyes at her. 

Shaw had followed Root into the family brownstone and as soon as they door was closed, she stopped the fake nanny and pulled the blonde wig off her head. George looked at Root with a confused face until she leaned over and tickled his belly. They went about washing up the kids for dinner then headed towards the kitchen. George liked having Shaw carry him around and he cried briefly when she put him down, so she picked him back up and hoisted him on her shoulders. Root had the baby all ready in the high chair. 

Root turned around to face Shaw, “Wanna order Chinese food?”

“Root, we can’t feed these kids Chinese food.” Shaw grabbed George from her shoulders and brought him down to the ground, she purposely tickled him and then asked him seriously what he was laughing at which made the little boy giggle more. She strategically tickled George more while helping him take his sweater off for dinner. 

“Why not?” Root asked with a sly grin. 

Shaw glared at her. “Well, that one doesn’t have teeth.” She pointed to the baby in the high chair. The baby girl stared back at her with wide eyes and a wide-open mouth. “And this one,” Shaw then pointed to George who gleefully pointed back at her. “Would hate it.” 

Root smirked to Shaw. “There are some chicken tenders and mashed potatoes in the fridge for George and I’ll get the baby food for Ruth.” She went about rummaging around in the kitchen. 

“Ruth? George?” Shaw said surprised with some added sarcasm. “No Arrow? Teal? A season? A name of the month? A spice?”

“Sameen, who knew you were so passionate about baby names.” Root turned from the refrigerator to smile at Shaw. 

Shaw rolled her eyes at Root. 

“They’re people names.” Shaw walked over and picked up George to take him to sit at the kitchen table. “Root? Say no more.”

“We can’t all be named for being precious and expensive.” Root walked over and ran her hand over Ruth’s adorable head as she prepared the food. 

“And invaluable.” Shaw made sure George was secure at the table before joining Root with helping to get the food ready. 

“All of these are true.” Root leaned over to Shaw and placed a quick kiss on her cheek. 

George only seemed to eat if Shaw made motor noises and lifted the spoon high in the air pretending to land in his mouth. Root was highly amused at seeing her Shaw appease a toddler. Shaw couldn’t stop laughing when Ruth managed to get the spoon away from Root and throw baby food in her hair. By the time dinner was over, there was mashed potatoes in everybody’s hair. 

“Root, this kid can live for another night without having a bath.” Shaw almost made a whiny plea to get out of the task. 

“Shaw, not up for the challenge?” Root tilted her head and ran her tongue over her lips. “I’m sure giving George a bath is tougher than taking down an international heist gang.” Root arched her eyebrows at Shaw. 

Shaw sat next to the bathtub as George splashed around with all his toys. The kid had a Winnie the Pooh pirate ship bath toy and had gone full blast orchestrating a battle in the choppy, soapy waters of the tub. Shaw watched on as George made splash bombs explode splashing water everywhere and mostly getting her face and sweater soaked. 

“Kid, leave some water in the tub.” Shaw wiped more water off her face with the sleeve of her sweater. 

George looked up at Shaw and giggled. He then handed her a Tigger action figure. 

“That’s Captin Tigger!” George then waved his hand over to the plastic pirate ship in the bathtub. “He fighting Pooh.” The little boy splashed around and almost lost his balance, but Shaw was there with a protective arm, watching out. “I’m Pooh, you Tigger.” 

Shaw rolled her eyes, but started moving the Tigger action figure around on the rim of the bathtub. 

“Pooh, you better watch out,” Shaw said in a serious tone with serious eyes, then she rolled her eyes and angled the Tigger action figure towards George while he was holding the Pooh action figure. She took a deep breath and said in her best pirate accent, “Arrrr, I’m gonna get that scurvy pot-bellied bear.” 

George squealed in delight. He slammed his hands down in the water, causing more and more splashing. Shaw stood up and took off her sweater, and then she sat back down in her black tank top ready to beat Pooh in the bathtub sea battle. 

A bit later, Root had finally got Ruth ready and tucked into bed she went into George’s room to see how Shaw was fairing. She was startled when the boy yelled at her. 

“No! You in lava!” George shouted at Root as she stepped one foot into the room. “Be carefur.” the little boy waved his hands to the floor. 

Root looked over to Shaw who was standing on a chair near George’s bed. Shaw stood on the chair with her arms crossed nonchalantly like if she fell to the floor she wouldn’t be en gulfed in molten hot fake lava and die. Root couldn’t help smiling as she looked at Shaw with slightly damp hair, now in only her tank top and jeans. 

“Shaw, Root has to say night.” George stood up in his cartoon pancake pajamas and pointed to Root. 

“Fine, kid.” Shaw growled. She noticed Root had changed into some sweatpants and a t-shirt; it was going to make treading across fake lava easier.

She then reached over to George’s nightstand and grabbed a book and threw it on the floor, near Root. She then leaned over as far as she could so she could land on George’s bed without landing on him. She then grabbed one of his pillows and threw it even further and closer to Root. 

“Use those stepping stops to not get dissolved in the lava,” Shaw said seriously, and then rolled her eyes. 

“Don’t touch lava!” George cautioned as Root started her journey across the imaginary lava across the bedroom floor. 

Root made dramatic body gestures each time, almost falling onto the floor and into the imaginary lava. She finally made it over to the chair then without giving Shaw a chance to move she launched and landed on top of the woman. Shaw let out a grunt, but grabbed onto Root’s waist to hold her close and keep her from falling off the bed and into the hot molten fake lava floor. 

“Thanks, sweetie.” Root’s lifted up and her lips were so close to Shaw’s lips. She wanted so badly to lean in further and kiss her lava savoir senseless, but she didn’t think the little guy who was now yelling about lava would appreciate it. 

Eventually, George calmed down enough to pick a book for his bedtime story. He chose Shaw to read to him but he wanted Root to stay and she obliged as the Machine promised to alert her if Ruth woke up. 

Finally, Root and Shaw were able to sneak out of George’s room as the toddler fell asleep and was now snoring lightly while clutching onto a brown stuffed dog. They made their way to the living and room and flopped down on the couch. 

“I thought you had a server to hack?” asked Shaw as she took her hair down and ran her fingers through it. She knew Root was watching every moment and most likely drooling out of two sets of lips. 

“The Machine said she did it.” Root scooted closer to Shaw on the couch and leaned in to nuzzle her neck. 

“Then what the hell are we doing here?” Shaw glared at Root, her mild seduction aborted by this new information. 

“Apparently, the parents really needed a night away…to reconnect with each other,” Root placed an open, wet kiss on Shaw’s neck. 

“The Machine has us as literal babysitters now.” Shaw closed her eyes as Root continued her kissing up and down her neck. Her body always betrayed her when Root was involved. 

“She likes George. He always waves and smiles to her when he sees a security camera.” Root moved so she could straddle Shaw’s lap on the couch. 

“She’s grooming toddlers now to be primary assets?” Shaw grumbled and rolled her eyes. She moved her hands up underneath Root’s loose t-shirt, her hands roaming down to grip Root’s waist. 

Root got that look on her face where she stared off into the distance or maybe she was staring off into the Machine itself as she talked to her. “She said, she also wanted to test our abli…” she didn’t to finish what the Machine was whispering in her ear. She feared it would spook Shaw. 

“Our what?” Shaw’s brow was creased as she stared at Root. 

“Our ability…to train young assets to stop bank robberies,” Root’s mouth was against Shaw’s mouth, “and now maybe we can reconnect too.”


End file.
